[Lowell W]

Bruce,

CONGRATULATIONS!!! You're gonna love the car.

As you say, you'll have plenty of time to decide on the details. A Ford crate motor will give you plenty of power for a "sports car" and the sky's the limit. I'll go out on a limb and guess that the average SPF owner probably installs about a 450 HP motor. One caveat: Some guys build "sky's the limit" motors and then realize that they're not much fun to live with. There's a wealth of information on CC if you're willing to start digging around. If you have the time and inclination, a trip to Spring Fling in June will help you answer a lot of questions.

I did a lot of thinking, then ordered my car with the TKO with the .68 OD. Then, while I was waiting for the car to arrive, I read more and wondered whether I had made the right decision. With my motor and the standard SPF rear gears, the .68 OD is pretty near perfect for me, as I drive the car a lot and like being able to cruise at 60mph at about 2000rpm. I did end up with a pretty low first gear, although it is useful at times. If I had it to do all over again, I MIGHT go with the TKO II and a little higher rear gears, although I'd need to be convinced. Mike Stenhouse did an excellent presentation of the engine/transmission/rear gearing topic in issues V5#1 and V5#2 (October 31, '02 and December 31, '02) of "Second Strike", the Superformance Owners Group newsletter. There should be a copy at Snakepit, or someone near you may loan you his copies. Or, join the group and buy the back issues; they're well worth the cost.

Stay a little on the conservative side and you almost can't go wrong with one of these cars.